Alpha Infra bids for 80 MW solar power in Andhra Pradesh

According to reports, Alpha InfraProp Private Ltd has bid for creating 80 MW of solar power, Lanco Solar Energy for about 60 MW in the latest round of tenders called for by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

A record 294 bids were submitted by 184 bidders with the total capacity installation of 1,350 MW. The State Government had, in the first phase, invited bids for setting up of 1,000 MW of solar power projects. The last date for bid submission was February 15.

Interestingly, Medak, Mahboobnagar and Nalgonda, all sharing borders with Hyderabad have emerged as the top three locations for the solar projects with an average of 40 bids each. Similarly, Alair, Sadashivpet and Zaheerabad in these districts attracted an average of eight bids, according to industry sources.

Alpha InfraProp is already setting up a 4×660 MW super-critical, coal-based power plant in Komarada in Srikakulam district. The other major bidders from the State are Surya Green Power (50 MW), Azure Green (30 MW), Pennar Industries (10 MW), Surana Ventures and Photon Energy (5 MW), as per official information.

Andhra Pradesh’s tender for the purchase of electricity generated by solar plants, includes power purchase agreements. The State’s transmission utility APTransco had put out a list of sub-stations and the solar power capacity that each of them can take. Bids could be put in for multiple locations — one bid for each location — subject to a cap of 20 MW per bidder.

Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan now have active solar initiatives going. While Rajasthan has only 200 MW, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have tendered for projects worth 1,000 MW each. In Tamil Nadu, the Government received bids for 490 MW only for its tender calling for 1,000 MW.

For the power deficit State, the early completion of solar, wind and bio-mass power projects is priority, said Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. Focus will be on early completion and sorting out concerns with regard to implementation.

The Government should get the grid ready for evacuation and facilitate regulatory approvals to accelerate implementation of the projects said Narendra Surana, whose company is into renewable energy.